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Sunday, February 26, 2017

In
my previous blog, WAR HORSES: Part One, we took a look at notable horses ridden by prominent
generals of the Civil War. This time, we travel further back in history to examine
more war horses whose names and bravery in battle are nearly as legendary as
those of their owners.

Alexander tames Bucephalus

The
year was 346 B.C. and Philip II of Macedon had just paid the exorbitant price of thirteen
talents for a gorgeous black stallion, only to find that he could not be
ridden. No one was able to even mount the huge beast. Philip’s ten-year-old
son, Alexander, watched the proceedings and stepped forward, declaring the
horse’s handlers spineless and challenging his father that he could ride the
stallion. The boy was so adamant that he was granted the chance. Alexander took
the horse’s reins, turned him to face the sun, and promptly leaped onto his
bare back! Only Alexander had noticed that the stallion was afraid of his own
shadow. He named the enormous horse Bucephalus and they became inseparable.
Alexander the Great rode him into every battle from the conquest of Greece and Thebes through
Guagamela into India.

Napoleon Bonaparte and Marengo

Paintings
of Napoleon Bonaparte often depict him on horseback (not surprising since the
French general stood only five feet, six inches in height). A favorite mount
was “Marengo,” a fierce, stocky grey who was wounded eight times without ever
throwing his master from the saddle. It was aboard Marengo that Bonaparte met
his Waterloo (1815), ending the Napoleonic Era of European history. His last
horse was a white Arabian named Le Vizir, who lived to the age of thirty-three.
He was mounted and is currently on display at the Army Museum in Paris.

Closer
to home, America’s founding father, George Washington was a revered horseman.
Thomas Jefferson called him "the best horseman of his age, and the most
graceful figure that could be seen on horseback." Most paintings of
Washington show him astride “Blueskin,” a flashy white half-Arab with a dark
mane. However, the General usually rode a chestnut gelding named “Nelson” into
battle, since he was calmer under cannon fire. After his service during the
Revolutionary War, Nelson lived out his days at Mt. Vernon and was reported to “…run,
neighing, to the fence, proud to be caressed by the great master's hands.”

Washington on Blueskin

Washington and war horse, Nelson

Speaking
of the Revolution, Paul Revere’s midnight ride forever stands as the event
heralding the beginning of the conflict between England and the fledgling
colony of America. And who was the horse he rode? Unfortunately, we may never
know. Revere borrowed a horse from a
merchant named John Larkin for the hellbent-for-leather ride to Lexington. The
steed’s name is lost to history.

Andrew Jackson and Sam Patch

Tennessee
native son Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson favored thoroughbreds, raising and training
them himself. Most well-known was “Truxton.” A favorite story of Jackson is
that he engaged in a duel after a local rival forfeited a race between Truxton
and a horse named “Ploughboy.” Old Hickory caught a bullet near his heart and,
since doctors were afraid to remove it, there it stayed throughout the future
president’s life. “Sam Patch” is the white stallion shown in Jackson’s
presidential portrait and the horse who holds the title of being the General’s
true “war horse.” Sam Patch was named for a daredevil celebrity of the era, who
died attempting a jump across the falls of the Genesee River.

Kit Carson and Apache

The
Plains Indian Wars from the 1850s through the late 1870s are possibly the most
iconic of all conflicts between mounted opponents. Christopher “Kit”Carson was
one of the earliest Indian fighters. He was another leader who lacked in
stature at five feet, one and a half inches tall but possessed an abundance of
daring. According to the first Carson biography, The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky
Mountains by De Witt C. Peters, the “Fighting Trapper” rode a horse with
the ironic name of “Apache.”

General
George Armstrong Custer’s most famous horses were “Dandy” and “Vic.” It was
Vic, a stockinged sorrel with a blazed face, that Custer rode during the
infamous Battle of the Little Bighorn. The Sioux claimed that Vic was captured
after the massacre.

Dandy (left) and Vic (right), belonged to Gen. George Custer

Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt and Little Texas

During
the Spanish American War, Theodore Roosevelt led the charge of the Rough Riders
in the Battle of San Juan Hill (July, 1898) on “Little Texas,” a chestnut
described as a “pony” by historians. After the war, Roosevelt brought Little
Texas back to the family's Sagamore Hill estate on Long Island where he lived
out his days as playmate to the five Roosevelt children.

Two legends: Villa, Siete Luegas

In
the early 1900s, Francisco “Pancho” Villa blazed a rebel’s trail across Mexico
(and one raid on U.S. soil) on his stallion “Siete Leguas,” which translates to “Seven Leagues.” Villa was proud
of the horse’s stamina and speed. Supposedly, Siete Leguas regularly covered seven leagues (about twenty-four
miles) during conquests.

I
have barely touched on the history of horses in warfare. Since the Greek myth
of the Trojan Horse, the majestic animals have been a part of military battle
lore. Did you know that, soon after the 9/11 attacks, a small band of U.S. Special
Forces soldiers secretly entered Afghanistan and went to war against the Taliban…riding horses? Isn’t that thrilling? Here is Doug Stanton's book about the raid.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

THE DOCTOR'S BAGthe blog about the medicine and surgery of yesteryearKeith Souter aka Clay More

Two of the earliest posts I wrote for this blog were entitled Dig It Out Doc. Part one was about treating arrow wounds. It was based on a paper written by Dr Joseph H Bill, published in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences in 1862. Part 2 was about treating bullet wounds. It was essentially about the methods used by Dr George Goodyear, the surgeon to the gunfighters and was based on his papers on the subject.

In this blog I am going back to the Civil War to see what the eminent surgeon, Dr John Julian John Chisolm had to say. You might find this useful in your writing about the way bullet wounds actually heal.

Dr Julian John Chisolm (1830-1903)
Julian John Chisolm, often referred to as John Julian Chisolm, or as J.J. Chisolm was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1830. H obtained his MD medical degree from the Medical College of South Carolina in 1850, then travelled to Europe to study medicine and surgery in Paris and London.

Dr Julian John Chisolm (1830-1903)

He returned to Charleston in 1860 and took up the post of Professor of Surgery at the Medical College, from whence he had graduated a decade previously. He kept the position throughout the War and in 1861 published the first edition of his textbook A Manual of Military Surgery for the use of Surgeons in the Confederate States Army.

Here is what he says in his book:

In gunshot wounds the swelling of the soft parts, which commences a few hours after the injury has been received, usually continues to increase until the completion of the fourth day, when it has attained its acme, with commencing suppuration. Should sloughing occur, it will show itself by the sixth or seventh. On the eighth or north day the slough has, in most cases, separated itself from the edges of the track of the ball, and in a few days more will have been disengaged. With the cleansing of the wound, when no complication with foreign bodies exist, the inflammation gradually subsides, the swelling diminishes, purulent discharge lessens in quantity, and the wound commences to contract. The middle portion of the track first closes, and with with utmost frequently the opening of the exit, leaving a funnel shaped canal, which diminishes from day to day, becoming more superficial, until no depth is left to the orifice of entrance. The wound cicatrizes (scars) with a depression, marking distinctly the nature of the injury which has been received. In the experience of many army surgeons the most dependant orifice heals last, without reference to the entrance or exit of the ball. Should the orifices, however, be situate at the same place, the orifice of exit is usually the first to close. This is the ordinary course which gunshot wounds take when judiciously treated in good constitutions. In the general treatment of gunshot wounds, interfere with the general health as little as possible. The commonly prescribed antiphlogistic (anti-inflammatory) remedies are, with but rare exceptions, not required. The endless list of emetics, purgatives, diuretics, and diaphoretics, to which some European writers still cling with wonderful tenacity, can, with decided benefits, be dispensed with. Guthrie, who represents this class, in speaking of the inflamed stage of gunshot wounds, says that the treatment for subduing this should be active: "The patient, if robust, ought to be bled (if no endemic disease prevails), vomited, purged, kept in the recumbent position, and cold applied as long as it shall be found agreeable to his feelings; when that ceases to be the case, arm fomentations ought to be resorted to, but they are to be abandoned the instant the inflammation is subdued and suppuration well established."

From this tract you can see that he strongy disagreed with Professor George James Guthrie, a British surgeon who had seen service in the Peninsula and the Napoleonic Wards and who was regard as the founder of British Military Surgery. He did not disagree with his surgical techniques, but with his use of bleeding, blistering and purging, which had been the accepted testament up until then. I will be returning to Professor Guthrie in a later post.

Professor George James Guthrie (1785-1856)

Give them whiskey
Chisolm goes on to discuss aftercare.

We have, therefore, abandoned the plan of starving wounded men, or, by mistaken policy of a rigorous diet, to keep off inflammation. We look upon inflammation as always depressing in its character - nature requiring assistance from without to enable her to cope successfully with disease. We do not hesitate, therefore, as soon as the stage of reaction has passed, to feed the wounded with strong, nourishing diet, and also further to support the system by the use of stimuli. Whiskey has been freely given to our wounded, particularly during the suppurative stage, and with decided benefit.

_____

THE DOCTOR'S BAG - MEDICINE AND SURGERY OF YESTERYEAR has been published by Sundown Press, available on ebook or paperback.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Hi everyone! Sorry for the re-post, but this one bears repeating and you may have missed it the first time around--I ran out of time and thought I'd put up this "oldie but goodie" about this wonderful, wonderful Dorothy M. Johnson story rather than totally miss my blog date! Heaven forbid! Hope you enjoy--even if you may have seen it before. What's YOUR favorite short story?

I know we’ve talked before about Dorothy M. Johnson, the iconic western short story writer who penned such classics as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Hanging Tree, and A Man Called Horse; but today, I wanted to tell you about another short story of hers that I read a few days ago. Quite possibly, the best short story –in any genre—that I’ve ever read.

You may never have heard of it. It wasn’t made into a movie, because it too closely mirrored the true life of a real person, Cynthia Ann Parker, mother of Quanah Parker. The story is called Lost Sister.

I’d heard this story mentioned before by a couple of friends, and thought, “I need to read that—I’ve never read much of Mrs. Johnson’s work but the movies have all been good.” I know. I hate it when people say that, too. Anyhow, I bought a collection from Amazon that contained the three stories I mentioned in the first paragraph and Lost Sister as the fourth. Of course, I had to read The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, since that’s tied for my all-time favorite western movie, along with Shane. I was so disappointed. The characters in the short story were not the same as my beloved Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne! Hmmm. Well, even though I was disappointed, I decided to give Lost Sister a shot.

It more than made up for my lukewarm feelings for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Lost Sister is the story of a woman who has been kidnapped as a young child by “the hostiles”. She has an older sister, who remembers her well from childhood, and loves her with the devotion that most older sisters have for a younger sister. Through the forty years she has been gone, the oldest sister, Mary, has cherished memories of her younger sibling.

There are three younger sisters, as well, who have no recollection of the Lost Sister, Bessie. The older sister doesn’t live with them, but in a different town a thousand miles away. The three sisters are notified that their sister, Bessie, has been “rescued” and is being brought back to them. The story is told from the eyes of a nine-year-old boy, whose mother lives with the sisters. She is the widow of their brother, who was killed by the Indians. The boy has dreams of growing up and avenging his father’s death, but something changes once his Aunt Bessie comes back to live with them.

Up until Bessie is returned to them, they have gotten much attention from the neighbors, and have been pitied as being the family who had a sister stolen by the savages so many years ago. Once Bessie is returned, their standing in the community takes a subtle twist. The other sisters don’t know how to handle Bessie’s homecoming. They make plans to go into her room and “visit” with her every day. One of them decides to read to Bessie from the Bible for thirty minutes each day. The others come up with similar plans, none of which include trying to understand Bessie’s feelings at being ripped away from her Indian family.

The oldest sister, Mary, comes to visit. What’s different? Mary loves Bessie, and accepts her; and Bessie loves her—they both remember their childhood time together. The language of love overcomes the barriers of the spoken language that neither of them can understand, for Bessie has forgotten English, and Mary doesn’t know Bessie’s Indian dialect. But Bessie has a picture of her son, and Mary admires it, and by the time Mary is to go home, she has made arrangements for Bessie to come live with her—a huge relief to the other pious sisters who had made such sympathetic noises about her being reunited with them in the beginning.

In a fateful twist, Bessie makes her own decision about what she will do, taking her own life back, and helping her son avoid capture. This is one story you will not forget. Once you read it, it will stay with you and you’ll find yourself thinking about it again and again. It doesn’t fit the mold of a romance story, except for the fact that I think of Bessie being in love with her husband, having children with him, and then being “rescued” and forced to live in a society she had no ties with any longer…except one—the love and understanding of her older sister, Mary.

No specific Indian tribe is mentioned in the story, probably for a purpose. I think, one of the main reasons is to show us the cultural differences and how, in this case, the “civilized” world that Bessie had come from and been returned to was not as civilized as the “savages” who had kidnapped her. Also, as I say, Cynthia Ann Parker’s story, at the time this story was published, was not that old. There were still raw feelings and rough relations between whites and Indians. But by leaving the particular tribe out of the story, it provides a broader base for humanity to examine the motives for “rescue” and the outcome for all concerned, of a situation such as this in which it would have been better to have let Bessie (Cynthia Ann) remain “lost.”

Friday, February 10, 2017

Your Old West characters would have been interested
in reading about many of the same things that interest modern folk: the latest
news, expert advice, and of course, looking and feeling good. People back then
worried about the same things we do, too: clear skin, gray hair and no hair.
This particular list of recipes is from The
Ladies' and Gentlemen's Etiquette (Mrs. E.B. Duffey, 1877).

Some terms
explained:

Ambergris:
a wax-like substance that originates as a secretion in the intestines of the
sperm whale; found floating in tropical seas and traditionally used in perfume
manufacture.

Attar
of Roses: the essential oil extracted from the petals of various types of
rose.

Bandoline:
a mucilaginous preparation used for smoothing, glossing or waving the hair.

Cantharides: extract of crushed blister beetle

Deliquated:
dissolved or melted.

Drachm:
a unit of weight formerly used by apothecaries, equal to 60 grains or
one-eighth of an ounce.

Felon:
also known as a whitlow; a deep, usually pus-filled inflammation of the finger
or toe, especially around the nail.

Gill:
a unit of volume equal to 4.16 fluid ounces

Goulard's
Extract: a solution of lead acetate and lead oxide; commonly used as an
astringent up until the early 20th Century.

Grain:
A unit of weight formerly used by apothecaries, equal to 60 milligrams. 1 gram
is equal to 15 grains, and 1 dram is 60 grains.

Isinglass:
a kind of gelatin obtained from fish, especially sturgeon, and used for making
glue, etc.; also used of transparent sheets of mica.

Muriate:
a chloride compound.

Rectified
Spirits: highly concentrated ethanol, which has been purified by repeated
distillation (rectification).

Spermaceti:
a waxy substance found in the head cavities of the sperm whale (and, in smaller
quantities, in the oils of other whales).

Tragacanth:
a natural gum made from the dried sap of several Middle Eastern legume plants.

To Cure Chilblains:

·When
indications of chilblains first present themselves, take vinegar three ounces,
camphorated spirits of wine one ounce; mix and rub.

·Rub
with alum and water.

·Put
the hands and feet two or three times a week into warm water in which two or
three handfuls of common salt have been dissolved.

·Rub
with a raw onion dipped in salt.

To Prevent the Hair from Falling Off:

·Vinegar
of cantharides half an ounce, eau-de-cologne one ounce, rose-water one ounce.
The scalp should be brushed briskly until it becomes red, and the lotion should
then be applied to the roots of the hair twice a day.

·A
quarter of a pint of cod-liver oil, two drachms of origanum, fifteen drops of
ambergris, the same of musk.

·Boxwood
shavings six ounces, proof spirits twelve ounces, spirits of rosemary two
ounces, spirits of nutmeg one-half an ounce. Steep the boxwood shavings in the
spirits for fourteen days at a temperature of 60 degrees; strain, and add the
rest.

Hair-Curling Fluid:

The various
fluids advertised and recommended for the purpose of giving straight hair a
tendency to curl are all impositions. The only curling-fluid of any service is
a very weak solution of isinglass, which will hold the curl in the position in
which it is placed if care is taken that it follows the direction in which the
hair naturally falls.

One of the
fluids in use is made by dissolving a small portion of beeswax in an ounce of
olive oil and adding scent according to fancy.

Bandoline:

This essential
for the toilette is prepared in several ways.

Simmer an
ounce of quince seed in a quart of water for forty minutes; strain, cool, add a
few drops of scent and bottle, corking tightly.

Take of gum
tragacanth one and a half drachms, water half a pint, rectified spirits mixed
with a equal quantity of water three ounces, and a little scent. Let the
mixture stand for a day or two, then strain.

It may be made
of Iceland moss, a quarter of an ounce boiled in a quart of water, and a little
rectified spirit added so that it may keep.

Lip-Salve:

This
indispensable adjunct to the toilette may be made by melting in a jar placed in
a basin of boiling water a quarter of an ounce each of white wax and
spermaceti, flour of benzoin fifteen grains, and half an ounce of oil of
almonds. Stir till the mixture is cool. Color red with a little alkanet root.

Rose-Water:

Rose-water may
be made by taking half an ounce of powdered white sugar and two drachms of
magnesia; with these mix twelve drops of attar of roses. Add a quart of water
and two ounces of alcohol, mixed in a gradual manner, and filter through
blotting-paper.

Burns:

An application
of cold, wet common whitening placed on immediately, is recommended as an
invaluable remedy.

Sticking-Plaster:

Stretch a
piece of black silk on a wooden frame, and apply dissolved isinglass to one
side of it with a brush. Let it dry, repeat the process, and then cover with a
strong tincture of balsam of Peru.